While those 9.7" tablets were introduced with price points of $499 and above, Apple today is looking to conquer the budget market with the introduction of the iPad mini. The iPad mini forgoes the bulkier frame of its larger siblings for a more svelte frame and 7.85" display.

Speaking of the display, Apple's competitors can gloat a bit on this aspect of the iPad mini; at least when it comes to screen resolution. Like the original iPad and iPad 2, the iPad mini sports a 1024x768 resolution screen. Compared to the competition from Amazon and Barnes and Noble, the iPad mini comes up short:

Despite the seemingly archaic screen resolution -- which is being retained to maintain compatibility with the existing iPad app library and to reduce power consumption -- Apple points to superb viewing angles and better color reproduction.

The iPad mini uses a dual-core A5 processor, faster WiFi, Lightning connector, and includes a 5MP cameras on the back. The iPad mini is just 7.2mm thin, and weighs just 0.68 pounds. Battery life is rated at 10 hours.

The iPad mini starts at $329 for the 16GB model; add $100 for 32GB and $200 for 64GB. If you want LTE, you can add an additional $130 to each of those prices. The iPad mini will be available for pre-order starting Friday. The WiFi models will ship November 2.

The 9.7" iPad also got an update (now called the fourth generation model), and uses an A6X processor which is twice as fast as the previous A5X. It also has twice the graphics performance. The device has been updated with a FaceTime HD camera, Lightning dock connector, and faster Wi-Fi. It will also be available for pre-order on Friday.

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Yeah, that's $499 for the new iPad w/ A6X with only 16GB of storage. To get the same amount as the Surface, you have to go up to $599. Then, in order to use USB or SD cards, you have to get $50 cables (for each).

When you add it all up, the iPad is a much more expensive proposition than the Surface. So unless you are locked into the Apple ecosystem or just aren't paying attention, I don't see the appeal of the iPad over the Surface or other WinRT tablets.

While I agree with you that the price on the Mini is absurd, you don't need the cables for USB or SD cards. Any documents or photos that are on the iPad you can sync with your PC wirelessly or even directly to the PC or Mac (that cable is included) and make any docs that were created in apps that have that capability available to you that way. No need to spend $100 or more for cables.

It's not absurd it's just an expression of Apple's confidence in how much they utterly control the tablet market and pretty much control the profitable section of every market they operate in.

Apple don't need to eat into their margins, price is not a meaningful constraint on iPad Mini demand. The Mini along with the rest of the iPad family will sell in vast quantities in comings months. Apple will sell them as fast as they can make them.

If the demand curve is almost straight up the price curve is not a constraint. Apple don't just want to succeed they want to rewrite the rules of every major business they compete in - and so far they have consistently succeeded.

Poor old Microsoft - it must be a bit dispiriting to spend so much money and effort going nowhere.

Someone is going to really disappointed because they fail to learn from history. Business can make a fortune revolving around key concepts and people in the short term but still lose large in the long run.

Apple lost its visionary leader. It's now seeing other companies moving rapidly to emulate its other advantages. Samsung has already started to dominate market share for smartphones, and Microsoft have moved into creating, in what most reviewers agree is, a well engineered competing product that runs Windows. Its OEMs just got a shocking wake-up call for 2013.

Apple's advantages are beginning to erode and they've also run out of market segments to revolutionize and dominate. iPods, iPhones and iPads are the full extent of anyone's imagined Sci-Fi future for mobile technology. Eye glasses or brain impants aside ;).

The next step will be share price erosion. Everyone knows that Apple is overpriced against market average and once investors notice the lack of other markets to invade, the growing competition and the strategic shifts in Samsung/Microsoft, that share price will start making people really nervous. Apple is long overdue a market correction once investor hysteria (read: speculation on continued bubble pricing) subsides.

What then for Apple?

Apple's genius has been its marketing and ability to so perfectly match customer expectations (at least when entering a market). That's the core pillar of their success. They have managed to avoid races to the bottom on prices through clever maneuvering and secretive development. That simply can't last - they're out of wriggle space and being forced into real competition. Now we have taller iPhones and smaller iPads - differentiation like that do not occur without something stressing your CEO about your competitiveness.

If they are really lucky, their decline will be fairly shallow - putting them on par with their peers. That might be enough to sustain them (if not their share price) so they can branch out into a stable diversified corporation that is not wholly reliant on a handful of markets under duress.

You seem to think it strange that someone posts regularly defending a company whose products he uses and likes. At the same time you seem to think it unremarkable that so many twerps post endless and repetitive criticisms of a company whose products they don't use. You seem to think that spending a few minutes a day typing a few words is 'fanatical'. The fact you feel that way is very odd but it's a big world and there is space for all sorts.

I like Apple, loved the first Mac I got for my business back in 1986 and was very disappointed that the world of computing ended up being dominated by such an ugly and dysfunctional Mac-copy as Windows. I was pleased that Apple survived it's years under brain dead management and astonished by their exponential growth over the last decade. I am now pleased that the tech world is dominated by Apple, their design philosophy and aesthetics produces products that empower and delight countless millions. Even those who don't buy Apple products now buy products that look and function as they do because of what Apple does, Apple's work now defines the industry, in fact several industries. So I am one happy camper.

If that is how you see it, I dont know what to say... It sounds delusional. "Spends a few minutes a day" and "posting facts" are two phrases that just aren't true. You spend a great deal of time and effort defending Apple, every move they make and every product regardless of any info given as if you are on a mission. You have some facts, mixed with conjecture and spin and you regularly ignore facts to the contrary. In other words when evaluating "The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth", you get a Yes, No No.

You clearly have an agenda here, and I was just trying to get to the root of it. You do not simply "like Apple", that is gross misuse of the word "like" LOL. A lot of people like a particular company, they don't spend time defending every move they make and every single product every single day. What is it?

At the end of the day Surface RT is not running Windows. You don't have access to the gigantic software library that has been built up over the years. In my opinion this moves Surface RT squarely into "toy" territory.

Surface RT comes with more space but Windows RT + Office takes up 12GB of space. iOS 6 takes up just under 1 GB. It's hard to put a value on USB ports or SD card slots but Android tablets have all of those things for cheaper than the iPad and they are still being crushed.

In my humble opinion it all comes down to app availability. People want a device that works well and runs a ton of apps.

quote: Surface Pro is what people should be waiting for, and that is more of an alternative to an ultrabook given its cost.

Quite frankly, I'm disappointed in the Surface RT but it's not totally unexpected. The iPad Mini is disappointing as well but given the iPhone5, that shouldn't surprise either. The Surface Pro IS what I'm interested in and will see how that pans out.

Agreed. MS pushing the underpowered, poor-resolution, untested UI surface at a higher price than existing competition (with a commanding share of the market) makes about as much sense as HP announcing it will kill its PC division.